Y.R. 712 BOOK V THE CIVIL WARS (CONTINUED) CHAPTER I The Scattered Republican forces - How they were reassembled Octavius and Antony after the Battle- Antony in Asia - Makes a Public Speech at Ephesus - Levies Ten Years' Taxes - Distress of the Inhabitants-Antony makes a tour of The Eastern ProvincesMeets Cleopatra in Cilicia and becomes her Slave-The Murder of Arsinoe Unsuccessful Attack on Palmyra - Antony goes to Egypt to join Cleopatra B.C. I. AFTER the death of Cassius and Brutus, Octavius re- 42 turned to Italy. Antony proceeded to Asia, where he met Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, and succumbed to her charms at first sight. This passion brought ruin upon them and upon all Egypt besides. For this reason a part of this book will treat of Egypt - a small part, however, not worth mentioning in the title, since it is incidental to the narrative of the civil wars, which constitutes much the larger portion. Other similar civil wars took place after Cassius and Brutus, but there was no one in command of all the forces as they had been. The later wars were sporadic. But, finally, Sextus Pompeius, the younger son of Pompey the Great, the last remaining leader of that faction, was slain, as Brutus and Cassius had been, and Lepidus was deprived of his share of the triumvirate, and the whole government of the Romans was centred in two only, Antony and Octavius. These events came about in the following manner. 2. Cassius, surnamed Parmesius,1 had been left by Cas 1 This man is called Cassius Parmensis (i.e. Cassius of Parma) by Suetonius (Aug. 4). He was one of the assassins of Cæsar, and, according to Velleius (ii. 87), the last one to be punished. There is a letter to Cicero (Ad Fam. xii. 13) from "Cassius, Quæstor," dated at Y.R. B.C. 712 sius and Brutus in Asia with a fleet and an army to collect 42 money. After the death of Cassius, not anticipating the like fate of Brutus, he selected thirty ships belonging to the Rhodians, which he intended to man, and burned the rest, except the sacred one, so that they might not be able to revolt. Having done this he took his departure with his own ships and the thirty. Clodius, who had been sent by Brutus to Rhodes with thirteen ships, found the Rhodians in revolt (for Brutus also was now dead). Clodius took away the garrison, consisting of 3000 soldiers, and joined Parmesius. They were joined by Turulius, who had a numerous fleet and a large sum of money which he had previously extorted from Rhodes.1 To this fleet, which was now quite powerful, flocked those who were rendering service in various parts of Asia, and they manned the ships with soldiers as well as they could, and with slaves, prisoners, and inhabitants of the islands where they touched, as rowers. The son of Cicero joined them, and others of the nobility who had escaped from Thasos. Thus in a short time there was a considerable gathering and organization of officers, soldiers, and ships. Having received additional forces under Lepidus,2 who had brought Crete under subjection to Brutus, they made sail to the Adriatic and united with Murcus and Domitius Ahenobarbus, who had a large force under their command. Some of these sailed with Murcus to Sicily to join Sextus Pompeius. The rest re the promontory of Crommyon, Cyprus, June, 710, describing the naval operations of himself and others in those waters. That this letter was written by Cassius Parmensis and not by Lucius Cassius, the brother of Gaius, is made probable by the fact that he was then, as he informs Cicero, cruising in conjunction with Turulius (mentioned below), and that they joined their fleets and sailed to the Adriatic about the time that Lucius Cassius was making his peace with Antony in Asia, as described in Sec. 7. Cassius of Parma was a poet of distinction. See Horace (Epistles, i. 4. 3). 1 This Turulius is twice mentioned in the letter to Cicero (Ad Fam. xii. 13) as the quæstor of Tillius Cimber and as the commander of a fleet in the Mediterranean operating against Dolabella. According to Valerius Maximus (i. 1. 19) his death was due to an act of impiety in cutting down for ship-building purposes a grove of trees sacred to Esculapius. 2 It is not known whether this Lepidus was a relative of the triumvir or not. Y.R. 712 mained with Ahenobarbus and formed a faction by themselves. Such was the first reassembling of what remained of the war preparations of Cassius and Brutus. 3. After the battle of Philippi Octavius and Antony offered a magnificent sacrifice and awarded praise to their army. In order to provide the rewards of victory Octavius went to Italy to divide the land among the soldiers and to settle the colonies. He was chosen for this purpose on account of his illness. Antony went to the nations beyond the Ægean to collect the money that had been promised to the soldiers. They divided the provinces among themselves as before and took those of Lepidus besides. It was decided, at the instance of Octavius, to make Cisalpine Gaul free,' as the elder Cæsar had intended. Lepidus had been accused of betraying the affairs of the triumvirate to Pompeius. It was decided that if Octavius should find that this accusation was false other provinces should be given to Lepidus. They dismissed from the military service the soldiers who had served their full time, except 8000 who had asked to remain. These they took back and divided between themselves and formed them in prætorian cohorts. There remained to them, including those who had come over from Brutus, eleven legions of infantry and 14,000 horse. Of these Antony took, for his foreign expedition, six legions and 10,000 horse. Octavius had five legions and 4000 horse, but of these he gave two legions to Antony in exchange for others that Antony had left in Italy under the command of Calenus. Then Octavius proceeded 713 toward the Adriatic. 4. When Antony arrived at Ephesus he offered a splendid sacrifice to the city's goddess and pardoned those who, after the disaster to Brutus and Cassius, had fled to the temple as suppliants, except Petronius, who had been privy to the murder of Cæsar, and Quintus, who had betrayed Dolabella to Cassius at Laodicea. Having assembled the Greeks and other peoples who inhabited the Asiatic country around Pergamos, and who were present on a peace embassy, and others who had been summoned thither, Antony addressed 1 Κελτικὴν . . . αὐτόνομον ἀφιέναι. It had been Caesar's intention to put Cisalpine Gaul on a footing of equality with the rest of Italy as to civil and political rights. This intention was now carried out. B.C. 42 41 Y.R. 713 B.C. them as follows: "Your King Attalus, O Greeks, left you 41 to us in his will, and straightway we proved better to you than Attalus had been, for we released you from the taxes that you had been paying to him, until the action of popular agitators among us made these taxes necessary. When they became necessary we did not impose them upon you according to a fixed valuation so that we could collect an absolutely certain sum, but we required you to contribute a portion of your yearly harvest in order that we might share with you the vicissitudes of the seasons. When the pub licans, who made these collections by the authority of the Senate, wronged you by demanding more than was due, Gaius Cæsar remitted to you one-third of what you had paid to them and put an end to their outrages; for he even turned over to you the collection of the taxes from the cultivators of the soil. And this was the kind of man that our honorable citizens called a tyrant, and you contributed vast sums of money to the murderers of your benefactor and against us, who were seeking to avenge him. 5. "Now that a just fortune has decided the war, not as you wished, but as was right, if we were to treat you as allies of our enemies we should be obliged to punish you. But as we are willing to believe that you were constrained to this course by necessity, we will release you from the heavier penalty. We need money and land and cities as rewards for our soldiers. There are twenty-eight legions of infantry which, with the auxiliaries, amount to upwards of 170,000 men, besides cavalry and various other arms of the service. The sum that we need for such a vast number of men you can easily imagine. Octavius has gone to Italy to provide them with land and cities to expropriate Italy, if we must speak plainly. That we may not be under the necessity of expelling you from your lands, cities, houses, temples, and tombs, we must count upon getting money from you, not all that you have (we could not think of that), but a part, a very small part, which, when you learn it, I think you will cheerfully pay. What you contributed to our enemies in two years (for you gave them the taxes of ten years in that time) will be quite sufficient for us; but it must be paid in one year, because we are pressed by necessity. As you are sensible of our Y.R. B.C. 713 leniency toward you, I will merely add that the penalty 41 imposed is by no means equal to your deserts." 6. Antony spoke thus of providing a donative for twentyeight legions of infantry, whereas I think that they had forty-three legions when they came to their agreement at Mutina and made these promises, but the war had probably reduced them to this number. The Greeks, while he was still speaking, threw themselves upon the ground, declaring that they had been subjected to force and violence by Brutus and Cassius, and that they were deserving of pity, not of punishment; that they would willingly give to their benefactors, but that they had been stripped by their enemies, to whom they had delivered not only their money, but, in default of money, their plate and their ornaments, and who had coined these things into money in their presence. Finally, they prevailed by their entreaties that the amount should be reduced to nine years' taxes, payable in two years. It was ordered that the kings, princes, and free cities should make additional contributions according to their means, respectively. 7. While Antony was making the circuit of the provinces Lucius Cassius, the brother of Gaius, and some others, who feared for their own safety, when they heard of the pardon of Ephesus, presented themselves to him as suppliants. He released them all except those who had been privy to the murder of Cæsar. To these alone he was inexorable. He gave relief to the cities that had suffered most severely. He released the Lycians from taxes altogether, and urged the rebuilding of Xanthus. He gave to the Rhodians Andros, Tenos, Naxos, and Myndus,1 which were taken from them not long afterward because they ruled them harshly. He made Laodicea and Tarsus free cities and released them from taxes entirely, and those inhabitants of Tarsus who had been sold into slavery he liberated by an order. To the Athenians when they came to see him he gave Ægina in exchange for Tenos, and also Icos, Cea, Sciathos, and Peparethos. Proceeding onward to Phrygia, Mysia, Galatia, Cappadocia, Cilicia, Cole-Syria, Pales tine, Ituræa, and the other provinces of Syria, he imposed 1 Myndus was a town on the coast of Caria. Probably a small island lying in front of it is here referred to. |